Women's Studies Research Center and Ethics Center exhibit explores healing power of art

Jan. 11, 2008

“Healing, Community, and Transformation: Student Visions from Johannesburg”
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life
Jan. 16 – Feb. 26, 2008
Kniznick Gallery, Women's Studies Research Center
Brandeis University

Brandeis’ Women’s Studies Research Center and International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life present an exhibition about the healing power of art in South Africa

WALTHAM, Mass. – In a region ravaged by HIV/AIDS and the long-term legacies of apartheid, how can South Africa begin to mend?

From Wednesday, Jan. 16 through Tuesday, Feb. 26, “Healing, Community and Transformation: Student Visions from Johannesburg” will explore how art can be a means of healing and a powerful tool for change. The exhibition, presented by the Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC) and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, will include photographs by Brandeis senior Naomi Safran-Hon and linocut prints created by South African student artists under the tutelage of artist Stompie Selibe.

“Art can be a powerful healing tool. Many communities in crisis, whether battling a health epidemic or struggling with the aftermath of war, find comfort in art,” said Shulamit Reinharz, professor of sociology and director of the WSRC.

As an Ethics Center Student Fellow in 2006, Safran-Hon worked with AIDS orphans at the Art Therapy Centre in Johannesburg. Her 11 color photographs of the Centre’s teachers and students explore the transformative power of creativity. One photograph shows several orphans proudly resting their hands alongside images they have painted of their hands. Illuminated by natural light, the paint-speckled hands speak of optimism and community.

Safran-Hon’s photographs are interspersed with 6 large-scale linocuts created by students of the Artist Proof Studio, a community-based art center in Johannesburg that teaches printmaking skills to underprivileged students. The black and white linocuts — a collaborative project directed by artist and teacher Stompie Selibe — investigate the themes of healing and community building. They include images that reference life cycles and the continuum of nature. Trees, nests filled with eggs, newborns and curvilinear lines fill the dramatic, organic compositions.

“The Artist Proof Studio is a haven of hope. Talented artists who have faced enormous obstacles gather to imagine a different future for themselves and their proud, beautiful country,” said Marci McPhee, associate director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. “Black and white artists produce intricate black and white linocut prints of life, birth and community — and in so doing, help create an integrated, equal society in the spirit of Nelson Mandela's ‘rainbow nation.’”

Programming related to the “Healing, Community and Transformation: Student Visions from Johannesburg” exhibition will address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and the role of caregivers of AIDS orphans — themes that permeate Safran-Hon’s and the South African students’ work.

A recent recipient of the Gold Medal at the documentary film festival in South Africa, “A Ripple in The Water: Healing through Art” documents Kim Berman's projects for art and social transformation, including founding the Artist Proof Studio.